#Isabella and Ray

[lonely-cereal]

Isabella and Ray and farm system small analysis

Isabella always acts like the outside is worse. That it will be the most woeful place. If her kids escape they will feel nothing but misery. She guilt trips, acting like she's the protector and that she's helping. She gave each child an amazing life. What else could she do? They were gonna die and she made sure they had a happy life beforehand. Besides Ray. Poor ray. But she can't change anything, can she? He has his reasons to live, he won't see them get shipped off. Ray didn't deserve her treatment (he deserves the world) and she KNOWS it. Yet she doesn't bother.

I think her treatment towards ray had something to do with HER illusion being shattered as well as his.

Imagine, you're a new mother. You're not near any demons anymore. You slowly build up this fake dollhouse family. Everyone loves you, the food is good, and you're in control. Even though there are shipments, you know you're the reason they had a happy life until the end.

But what if you find out, the child you literally birthed out of the womb and carried for 9 months is also in line for YOU to kill and they Know it. They feel so betrayed. You can't pamper them normally. They'll never look at you as a human again. You're not a mother in his eyes, you're a monster. You can't even save him, because he's a boy. Boys don't get to join the farm system. If he escapes, he'll find happiness, but you'll be killed. That illusion you just made for yourself is gone. You chose this job and it's real. You try to not get attached to your child, but you can't so you push them away to the point it kills you both.

Ray has every right to hate this woman. She's vile, she's cruel, she hurt him, she abused him, she made his life miserable. They could have had it all, they could've shared that burden together, she could've been nicer. But ray believes he's selfish for wishing this. Is he better himself? (Yes) he doesn't wanna be like her at all, but he is in some ways. Isabella fails because she had no companions, Ray didn't fall alone. He had someone to lean on. He had true (platonic) love right there living with him. Ray eventually was not sharing his burden alone. He learned to love and learned to live.

Isabella did not. She didn't have any real meaningful reason to live besides to live. Pushing everyone down to rise to the top is her ONLY way. Even her own son, who deserves nothing but love. She knows how to get to the top and she will. At least, that's what she'd like to think.

Because in the end, she cared. Ray cared. They all cared. Death was her atonement. However, if she had lived longer, would making everything up to ray and the others had been a better way of atonement?

[naehja]

Ray, 10 years old: I can explain.

Isabella: Can you?

Ray: If you give me thirty seconds to think of a lie.

Isabella: This lie better to be good Ray. Show me how good is your imagination.

[cordership]

Yeah, the “snack player” is cool and all, but what about the “DM wedding officiant player”?

[naehja]

@officersnickers​

I have seen your tags =)

Can you tell us more about this idea? 

It’s interesting.

I love angsty fic.

Maybe it's a unpopular opinion but i think that, whatever Isabella thought about it, shipping Ray would have destroyed her. She tried to keep her distance from him, because she was afraid to love him like her son, because she was unable to save him. She says "i couldn't dote on you" but she also thinks "i love you so much". She loves him so much when she tried to not. So i'm pretty sure that giving him to demon ans seeing him die (because she sees the kids die) would have broke her heart forever

Oh for sure. I don’t think anything could break her as much as Leslie’s departure did, but having to ship out Ray would definitely land a critical hit on her heart. No one would ever know this, of course. Isabella would hide her true emotions on a daily basis, as she does with every other kid she sends to the gate, but despite their very unusual and complicated mother-son relationship, she still cares for him as much as any other kid she had the chance to raise. We just don't get to see her loving nature towards Ray much because.. well, she's real damn good at her job.

I believe she only distanced herself after she learned that Ray was her actual son. Before Ray made the deal with her, there was no reason for her to treat him any different from anyone else. She thought he was just another kid she had to raise to be eaten for some demons to ensure her own survival. It sounds bad, I know, but it also means there was no point in acting fake around him. Everything she did pre-agreement was as genuine as she could get, given the circumstances of the house. For the first couple of years, she was nothing but a mom to him, just like she was to the other kids.

The distance between them grew once the deal came into play because they now saw each other as enemies. That actually helped them in regards to them handling their different situations and their own emotions, as the deal gave them different roles to act in. The whole shepherd/sheepdog idea made their interactions more civil and blunt. Sure they both ended up despising one another and plotting for the other’s downfall, but the agreement ultimately made it easier for them to deal with each other, as all their actions, words, thoughts, etc were as fake as could be. They learned that by twisting their relationship in such an insane way would help keep their emotions out of the picture so they can each pursue their goal in their never-ending game of chess, sneaking around their formalities to gain advantages over the other.

If they had to act like a real mother & son to each other with all the knowledge they both had about the farm, it would certainly make those last six years mentally and emotionally exhausting, no matter how hard they tried to hide it. Makes me wonder if Ray never offered up himself as her watchdog, would Isabella have shipped him off early instead? She kept Ray around since she could still control and use him as her own puppet, but I dunno if her love for him would’ve been strong alone to save him. She takes her caretaker job so seriously that love certainly couldn't save any other kid of hers, so despite Ray being her actual son, I wouldn’t doubt that she might’ve shipped him out prematurely here. His test scores could possibly gave him the chance to stay a bit longer, since she favors results more than the rules of the house, but there’s no way she could’ve ignored a kid who knew the secret and have them walk around the plantation carefree either. That would’ve created several problems. In the end, the deal was a huge benefit to them both. Obviously it spared Ray's life, but it also saved Isabella from getting even more emotionally attached to him by tossing their precious relationship aside.

Of course I know she does love him deep down. All I need to prove it is this one page that still manages to break my heart in several pieces and oh my god y’all I love them so damn much aaaaahhhh. Damn it Shirai! Did you really have to do this to them? And to me??

Aside from all the occasions I’ve spoken about Isabella loving her kids & Ray, ch 181.7 also throws the truth right in our faces once more thanks to Ray’s goodbye note. I recently mentioned in my 182days posts how touching it was for Isabella to hold onto the children's stuff because it shows us how near and dear they all were to her heart, so while she does eventually use the note to gain trust from Matilda & the other ladies, I firmly believe she kept it as a memento of Ray first and foremost. We see her holding onto that note here as if it’s just the most precious thing in the world and it warms my heart knowing that she kept it on her person the night of the escape since the entire house literally went up in flames and everything else in it was lost. If her love for Ray was this obvious to the four sisters who barely knew a thing about her, then it had to be clear as hell to her actual kids.

The love she feels for her kids (& Ray most importantly) should also be common knowledge to us readers as well, but I see some people doubt it every now and then still. It's fine, really. People will always see her as a villain and that's understandable. But *gestures to everything I ever said about this woman* hello?? Pfftt. ANYWAYS! Thanks for letting me ramble on about these two! (and if you're the same anon who sent the other ask that came in right after this one then I'll be answering that one shortly.)

[passedaway44]

[ctrl58]

feeding the tpn fandom today! (i can’t draw isabella for the life of me)

[sepiamestus]

"To survive"

[goldiipond]

i'll show you something cool so shut up and follow etc etc

[fullscoreshenanigans]

The Promised Neverland 8th Anniversary Art by Posuka Demizu [Complementary piece]

[raspbrrytea]

Afternoon nap

[liabutterscotch]

[lonely-cereal]

Like mother, like son.

he hated his eyes, the eyes that resembled his mother's

Ray and Isabella with ray purple eyes au 💜

Art is made by Me, I'm @raysgasolninecann on YouTube. Do not repost without permission

[naehja]

Isabella, to her 8 years old son: I know you snuck out of your room last night, Ray, and that you spent hours in the library. You didn't sleep a lot this night, right?

Ray: *thinking* Play dumb.

Ray, very innocently: Who’s Ray?

Ray: *thinking*: Not that dumb!!

[carnivorouswillgraham]

i need you guys to understand how important this official art is to me.

[sleepyhouzuki]

hi guys :]

[inkinthetypewriter]

usually i don’t base character connections directly by hair colour but the first time i watched the promised neverland i went, “wow, ray looks a lot like isabella and has black hair i wonder if she’s actually his mom” and then more of isabella’s backstory unfolded and it said that she really did have a kid and that it was ray and i went “oh, i cannot believe i predicted that”